Sin The Movie (of 1) (Mania.com)

Review Date: Saturday, February 01, 2003

What They SayEnter the world of Sin. In the 21st century, the city of Freeport teeters on the verge of collapse. The twin tides of rampant crime and ruinous graft face but a single barrier, an elite strike force of labeled HARD CORPS. Lead by John Blade, they have become a fierce fighting force for justice in Freeport.

Blade must now unravel a series of mysterious unexplained kidnappings. An elaborate puzzle unfolds as he delves into the decadence of the city, and at its heart is Elexis Sinclaire. Brilliant biochemist, unscruplous businesswoman, and merciless vixen, Elexis will stop at nothing to achieve her monstrous goal: to bring about the evolution of mankind!

The Review!US video game to cartoons and movies conversions are often horrifically bad. Japanese video game to anime is often reasonably good. But what about a US video game to anime conversion?

Audio:Two technically solid English and Japanese soundtracks. Sin was written in English first, so the English track is the primary, with Japanese track being the derivative and different one. The soundtrack has mix of techno and instrumental songs, more in keeping with a run of the mill blockbuster film than most anime.

Video:The transfer is your basic, trouble free NTSC to PAL conversion. The brightly colored, if bland looking world of Sin is clearly reproduced. The heavy US influence on Sin's production has ensured that it has the rare option of offering separate subtitles for both the English and Japanese.

Menu:A reasonable, static menu based upon the Sin the movie poster. Lack of any animation or sound enhancement means speedy movement between the pages.

Extras:Compared to the Region 1 version, we get a greatly decreased volume of extras, with just a six image picture gallery featuring some of the technology seen in Newport, biography entries on the main characters, and theatrical trailer. Trailers for other ADV product like BGC Tokyo 2040, Samurai X OAV, Spriggan and Evangelion and a page on who authored the DVD locally don't really make up for the loss of the staff and cast interview.

Packaging:Your basic Region 1 cover converted into a double sider. The front has a rather ho-hum shot of Blade gun raised, with Elexis behind him on top of jumbled yellow and DNA chart mess. The overly cluttered back cover features the same background, which renders the blurb hard to read. The inside front features ads for Eva Vol. 1 and 2, Samurai X: Trust, BGC Tokyo 2040 Vol. 1, Ninja Resurrection and Burn-Up W. Disc side features the Sin the Movie poster image, basically the same at the front cover image, but with Elexis facing forward. The disc itself is black with a grayscale version of the Blade gun raised image, with Sin in red.

Content: Set in the year 2070, Sin is mainly about John Blade, lead officer in the elite HARD Corps.While investigating a series of kidnapping of innocent young girls, they learn the perpetrator is genetically enhanced mutant. While saving the girl, Blade's best friend computer nerd JC (John Christopher Armack) is infected and begins to transform in the mutant and Blade is forced to kill him. While Blade tries to figure out why the young girl, Elyse, is being hunted by the mutants, JC's Sister JC (Jennifer Christina Armack) rough rides Blade over the death of her brother.

The evil corporate SinTEK, headed by the evil vixen Elexis Sinclaire, is creating the mutants for the betterment of mankind/increasing of SinTEK's control of almost everything, but needs a element to make them indestructible, one which is housed within a series of identical young girls...

The world of Sin looks like your common, run of the mill futuristic metropolis, populated by generic run of the mill, character designs. On the whole, the story's sixty minutes consists of enough weaponry to keep an army battalion happy, enough flowing blood to sate the most hungry vampire and all sorts of nubile women in various states of undress to keep hormone charged teenage boys smiling. In many ways it feels like the legions of bland, generic, ultra-violent releases Manga tried to convince the UK and Australia that anime consisted entirely of. Not even the novelty of being a US video game license lends it a hint of originality.

FeaturesEnglish Language, Japanese Language, English subtitles for each soundtrack, Image Gallery, Character profiles, Original Trailer, ADV trailers.